Max Boot Quotes

Insurgencies have a way of going on for a long time historically.

Air power and military are meant to fight the enemy and not your own citizens... How do you differentiate a Maoist?... It will create a civil war-like situation.

An insurgency is the most difficult to fight of all military activities.

The insurgent can sow disorder anywhere, whereas the counterinsurgent—fighting on behalf of the government—has to maintain order everywhere.

If we were fighting an army, the work would be comparatively easy. We are fighting a secret revolutionary organization.

The word 'insurgency' had connotations that really sent a shiver down the spine of folks in Washington, in the United States - for good reason, because it means this is something much bigger than just a few terrorist cells.

To make war upon rebellion is messy and slow, like eating soup with a knife.

There is no clear or meaningful difference between insurgency and civil war, or between national terrorism and civil war for that matter.

Without the United States, there simply would not have been an armed uprising in our country.

Guerrilla war is a kind of war waged by the few but dependent on the support of many.

In the short run, using militias might be the quickest and easiest way to improve order on Iraq's streets and uproot the terrorists and guerrillas who routinely attack American troops and civilian targets.

The insurgents are Baathists and Sunnis in Iraq who have as their goal a separate and distinct one of toppling the government that is there and creating their own.

Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

They call them terrorists, I call them freedom fighters.

Partisans fight on familiar territory with professed political objectives to conquer power. This is what distinguishes them from terrorists.

I have come among you, not as an enemy, but as your fellow citizen. Not to maltreat or annoy you, but to respect and enforce the rights of all loyal citizens. An enemy in rebellion against our common government has taken possession of and planted its guns on the soil of Kentucky and fired upon you… I am here to defend you against this enemy, to assist the authority and sovereignty of your government. I have nothing to do with opinions, and shall deal only with armed rebellion and its aiders and abettors. You can pursue your normal avocations without fear. The strong arm of the Government is here to protect its friends, and punish its enemies. Whenever it is manifest that you are able to defend yourselves and maintain the authority of the Government and protect the rights of loyal citizens, I shall withdraw the forces under my command.

With an insurgency, people are the prize. We can win every battle and still lose the war.

Insurgencies are nearly as old as warfare itself.

A government needs 100 soldiers for every guerilla it faces.

The borderline between guerrilla warfare and crime, between patriotism and terrorism, is often a very thin one.

Guerrilla troops, especially when supported by much of the population, [can] hold a colonial army at bay.

It is necessary to turn political crisis into armed crisis by performing violent actions that will force those in power to transform the military situation into a political situation. That will alienate the masses, who, from then on, will revolt against the army and the police and blame them for this state of things.

When you’re fighting [private] militias, you have to quash them.

We considered that the strike district was in a state of actual warfare and we acted according to the procedure of the United States Army in time of war …. during the state of insurrection which prevailed, the constitution of the state of West Virginia was suspended by the acts of those men who were burning, killing and destroying property. We believed that to perpetuate the state of West Virginia and restore the constitution we had to use extreme measures.

Two things are from now on impossible in France: revolution and war.